(Even more here)

March 12, 2020

Western Hemisphere Regional

• “2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” (U.S. Department of State, March 12, 2020).

The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974

• Nick Miroff, “Under Secret Stephen Miller Plan, Ice to Use Data on Migrant Children to Expand Deportation Efforts” (The Washington Post, March 12, 2020).

Agents will vet adults who come to claim migrant children and will seek to deport those who are rejected as sponsors

Bolivia

• Irfan Nooruddin, “Yes, Bolivia’s 2019 Election Was Problematic. Here’s Why.” (The Washington Post, March 12, 2020).

The last 5 percent of the vote count, which favored Morales substantially, is very different from the trendline for the other 95 percent of the count

Chile

• Claudio Nash Rojas, “Hacia la Mexicanizacion de las Fuerzas Armadas Chilenas” (CIPER (Chile), March 12, 2020).

El gobierno está preparando el terreno para “volver a utilizar a los militares y dar una solución represiva a la crisis social y política” actual

Colombia

• Laura Gil, “Defendamos la Paz y su Aniversario No Grato” (El Espectador (Colombia), March 12, 2020).

En tan solo un año, el movimiento se convirtió en una barrera de contención a los impulsos destructores del Gobierno y su partido

• Carlos Ceron, “Lideres Sociales No Asistiran a Encuentro Con Mininterior en Popayan” (La W Radio (Colombia), March 12, 2020).

Las organizaciones determinaron no participar en la sesión del Plan de Acción Oportuno por las declaraciones de Alicia Arango sobre la labor de los dirigentes

• Olga Patricia Rendon M., “Minas Antipersonal, un Flagelo Que se Recicla en el Pais” (El Colombiano (Medellin Colombia), March 12, 2020).

Todos los grupos armados ilegales siembran minas en sus corredores de movilidad, afectando especialmente a las comunidades que viven más apartadas y a las que es más difícil proteger

• “General Santoyo Debe Responder por Desaparicion de Miembros de Asfaddes Ante la Jep” (El Espectador (Colombia), March 12, 2020).

Claudia Patricia Monsalve Pulgarín y Ángel José Quintero Mesa fueron desaparecidos en octubre del 2000, en Medellín

• Adam Isacson, “An Outdated Interpretation of Counter-Terror Law Has Painted U.S. Colombia Programming Into a Corner. The Way Out Is Simple.” (Colombia Peace, Washington Office on Latin America, March 12, 2020).

It is a crime—punishable with fines or up to 15 years in prison—for U.S. citizens to provide any FARC party members with money, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, communications equipment, facilities, or transportation

• Laura Cano, “Comunidades de Tres Departamentos Rechazan el Glifosato” (Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Colombia), March 12, 2020).

El pedido de reactivar las fumigaciones de coca en Colombia que hizo Trump sonó a regaño y puso en alerta a los territorios afectados

Cuba

• Carlos Manuel Alvarez, “Cuba Arrested a Performance Artist Because He’s Everything the Regime Can’t Control” (The Washington Post, March 12, 2020).

Otero, 33, was on his way to a LGBTQ+ event in front of the Cuban Institute of Radio and TV, after an official censored a kiss between two men in the movie “Love, Simon.” Now Otero is in jail, his head shaven, wearing a prison uniform

El Salvador

• Efren Lemus, Oscar Martinez, Carlos Martinez, “La Historia Detras del Dia en Que Bukele se Tomo la Asamblea Legislativa” (El Faro (El Salvador), March 12, 2020).

Los soldados que entraron al Salón Azul pertenecían a un cuerpo élite, desplegado expresamente para la operación

Guatemala, U.S.-Mexico Border

• Reynaldo Leanos Jr., “Asylum-Seekers Reaching U.S. Border Are Being Flown to Guatemala” (All Things Considered, National Public Radio, March 12, 2020).

From beyond a chain-link fence, the protesters watch shackled migrants as they are escorted onto planes

Mexico

• Arturo RodrÍguez GarcÍa, “Operativo Que Detono Violencia en Celaya No Fue Contra “el Marro”, Afirma el Presidente” (Proceso (Mexico), March 12, 2020).

Los hechos de violencia registrados ayer en Guanajuato, que incluyó cierre de al menos 11 puntos carreteros y otros desmanes, fueron minimizados por el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador

• Michael Balsamo, “Inside Massive Dea Raid Targeting Drug Cartel” (Associated Press, March 12, 2020).

Agents fanned out across the United States, culminating a six-month investigation with the primary goal of dismantling the upper echelon of CJNG

Mexico, U.S.-Mexico Border

• Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court Says Trump Administration May Continue ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy for Asylum Seekers” (The Washington Post, March 12, 2020).

The justices reversed a decision of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that had ordered the policy be suspended Thursday along parts of the border

• Lily Hay Newman, “No, a Border Wall Won’t Stop Coronavirus” (Wired, March 12, 2020).

When asked at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday whether physical barriers at borders are part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for disease control efforts, CDC director Robert Redfield said, “Not that I’ve seen”

• Hamed Aleaziz, “The Supreme Court Is Allowing the Trump Administration to Force Immigrants to Wait in Mexico” (BuzzFeed, March 12, 2020).

The high court voted to allow the Trump administration to implement the “Remain in Mexico” policy — formally known as the Migration Protection Protocols — as a legal challenge continues

Costa Rica, Nicaragua

• “Two Years of Political and Social Crisis in Nicaragua Force More Than 100,000 to Flee” (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, March 12, 2020).

Even after the initial surge of violence in April 2018 subsided, Nicaraguan students, human rights defenders, journalists and farmers continue to flee their country at an average rate of 4,000 people every month

Venezuela

• Jorge Rueda, Scott Smith, “Opposition Street Marches Wear Thin for Some Venezuelans” (Associated Press, PBS NewsHour, March 12, 2020).

Analysts say it is time for Guaidó and his international backers to refine their approach

• “Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social Registra³ 779 Protestas Durante Febrero” (Tal Cual (Venezuela), March 12, 2020).

De acuerdo al portal de OVCS, las protestas de febrero se caracterizaron por el colapso de los servicios públicos como agua potable, electricidad, gas doméstico, recolección de basura, aguas servidas y alumbrado público